Written Answers Friday 4 August 2006

Scottish Executive

Equal Opportunities

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of employees of  sportscotland have been from ethnic minority groups in each of the last 10 years, broken down by grade and into athletic, coach and administration level of employee.

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of employees of the Scottish Institute of Sport have been from ethnic minority groups in each year since its inception, broken down by grade and into athletic, coach and administration level of employee.

Patricia Ferguson: This information is not held centrally. I have asked the Chair of  sportscotland to write to you setting out these details.

Fertility Treatment

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cycles of fertility treatment there are per head of population.

Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not recorded.

Health

Dr Jean Turner (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive how many medical pilot schemes are currently being conducted by NHS boards.

Lewis Macdonald: This information is not held centrally.

Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many intensive care units are used to treat premature babies, broken down by location.

Lewis Macdonald: The following hospitals have a neonatal unit:

  Ayrshire Central Hospital Borders General Hospital Royal Alexandra Hospital Forth Park Hospital The Princess Royal Maternity Unit Southern General Hospital Queen Mother’s Hospital Raigmore Hospital Wishaw General Hospital Aberdeen Maternity Hospital St John’s Hospital Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France Ninewells Hospital Perth Royal Infirmary Stirling Royal Infirmary Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies were born before 37 weeks of gestation in each year since 1995.

Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is available on NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division website at:

  http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=1022&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.

Health and Safety

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the Health and Safety Executive in relation to the potential effect of mobile telephone masts on public health.

Lewis Macdonald: Liaison has taken place between officials in the Scottish Executive Health Department and the Health and Safety Executive on the locus of the HSE under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, as it relates to the possible risks to public health from radiofrequency emissions from mobile phone base stations. The guidelines for public exposure to radiofrequency radiation that have been adopted by the UK are those of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) as set out in EU Recommendation EC/519/1999. The view of the HSE is that since exposures to radiation from base stations in areas that are normally accessible to the public demonstrably are well within these guideline levels and since there are no established public health effects for exposures below these limits, the activities of the mobile phone operators comply with their statutory duties as employers. The HSE expects that the operator or landlord will ensure that the public are properly excluded from any areas where guideline levels might be exceeded.

Housing

Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many Rural Empty Properties Grants have been provided in each of the last three financial years.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

  The number of Rural Empty Property Grants approved in each of the last three financial years is as follows:

  

 Year
 No. of Grants


 2003-04
 3


 2004-05
 2


 2005-06
 2

Housing

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the evidence to the Communities Committee by Johann Lamont at Stage 2 of the Housing Bill on 28 September 2005 ( Official Report , Communities Committee, c. 2468-72) and the Stage 3 proceedings of the Bill on 24 November 2005 ( Official Report , c. 21058-21118), when draft regulations pertinent to the house seller pack will be available; what progress has been made with regard to the "loan scheme" to fund such packs and, in particular, whether such loans will be secured loans and whether a seller can make repeat loan applications in respect of the same property should it fail to sell within the shelf life of the single seller survey, and what discussions it has had with building societies and other lenders regarding the status of the single seller survey.

Malcolm Chisholm: Since the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 received Royal Assent we have been working with stakeholders including mortgage lenders on the design of the mandatory Single Survey scheme. I expect that draft regulations will be available next year. We intend, as far as possible, to go with the grain of the current house buying and selling system. Discussions with lenders indicate that an arrangement similar to the present one under which they are provided with transcripts of information from surveys in order to assess mortgage applications is most likely to meet their requirements for information from the single survey.

  Work is also under way to develop the scheme of assistance under part 2 of the act. The form of any assistance for house sellers will be considered as part of that.

Influenza

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are sufficient stocks of flu vaccine for the coming winter.

Mr Andy Kerr: On 28 June 2006 the UK Vaccine Industry Group (UVIG) announced that it anticipated delays in the production of influenza vaccine for the 2006-07 season. The anticipated delay was due to the low manufacturing yield of one of the flu strains recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

  On 1 August 2006 UVIG confirmed that the volume of flu vaccine available for 2006-07 will meet the estimated number of doses required for the UK vaccination programme.

Maternity Services

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will respond to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) warning that midwife-led maternity units are more dangerous than hospital units.

Lewis Macdonald: NICE has issued no such warning.

Mental Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of (a) rape, (b) sexual assault and (c) sexual harassment there were against female patients in mental health units in the last five years.

Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not available centrally.

Mental Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children suffered from mental disorders severe enough to require treatment in each year since 1996.

Lewis Macdonald: This information is not held centrally.

Mental Health

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time to see a child psychiatrist was in each year since 1999 and how many in-patient beds there were for young psychiatric patients in each year.

Lewis Macdonald: NHS Scotland median waiting times for first out-patient appointments, following referral from a general medical or dental practitioner, to consultants in child and adolescent psychiatry specialties for calendar years 1999 to 2002 are shown in the following table.

  

 Calendar Year
 Child Psychiatry
 Adolescent Psychiatry


 Appointments
Median Wait(Days)
 Appointments
Median Wait(Days)


 1999
 3,131
 42
 1,983
 33


 2000
 3,283
 53
 2,006
 34


 2001
 2,923
 62
 1,748
 35


 2002P
 2,393
 55
 1,641
 34



  Source: SMR00 – ISD Scotland.

  PProvisional

  Note: 1. Due to data submission problems for the psychiatric specialties at a number of health boards, national records of out-patient attendances are incomplete after 2002. ISD are currently working with NHS board to rectify this problem.

  Bed numbers for the specialties child psychiatry (patients aged less than 13) and adolescent psychiatry (patients aged between 13 and 17) are published at the following web address:

  http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/Annual_trends_in_available_beds_HB_comparison_May06_release.xls.

NHS Expenditure

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been invested in (a) intensive care unit beds, (b) high dependency unit beds and (c) nurses with the critical care skills needed to staff those beds in each year since 1999.

Mr Andy Kerr: Decisions on investment in intensive care and high dependency unit beds and the planning of the workforce to deliver first class health services, including specialist nurses, to patients in Scotland, are primarily a matter for individual NHS boards. Each NHS board receives an annual allocation of funds to meet the health care services of its resident population. It is for Boards to decide how best to utilise these funds taking account of national and local priorities. No specific information on levels of investment is available centrally. Details of the running costs of intensive care and high dependency beds and the associated nursing staff costs since 1999 are as follows:

  

 
 Intensive Care Units
 High Dependency Units


Expenditure on 
Nursing Staff
(£000)
Total Net Expenditure
(£000)
Expenditure on 
Nursing Staff
(£000)
Total Net Expenditure
(£000)


 1999-2000
 24,660 
 58,712
 - 
 -


 2000-01
 28,109 
 59,735
 - 
 -


 2001-02
 30,890 
 66,533
 - 
 -


 2002-03
 33,159 
 69,864
 - 
 -


 2003-04
 38,591 
 80,107
 10,295 
 23,153


 2004-05
 37,205 
 81,830
 13,188 
 29,676



  Source: Scottish Health Service Costs.

  Note: Financial information on High dependency Units is only available from 2003-04

Nursing

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of nurses, qualifying this summer, have yet to find jobs.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not held centrally.

Organ Donation

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget for publicising organ donation was in 2005-06.

Mr Andy Kerr: The budget for the organ donation advertising campaign in 2005-06 was £145,000.

Organ Donation

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been awaiting organ donations in each NHS board in the last five years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The number of Scottish patients on the waiting list for a transplant in each NHS board area at the end of the last five financial year is set out in the following table.

  

 Health Board
 31-3-2002
 31-3-2003
 31-3-2004
 31-3-2005
 31-3-2006


 Argyll and Clyde
 38
 37
 43
 54
 66


 Ayrshire and Arran
 30
 39
 40
 48
 49


 Borders
 10
 13
 17
 16
 20


 Dumfries and Galloway
 19
 20
 20
 17
 19


 Fife
 38
 43
 46
 53
 61


 Forth Valley
 33
 34
 26
 30
 33


 Greater Glasgow
 154
 141
 135
 133
 141


 Grampian
 69
 68
 56
 69
 82


 Highland
 33
 35
 34
 40
 45


 Lanarkshire
 65
 58
 62
 66
 62


 Lothian
 98
 113
 102
 110
 118


 Tayside
 58
 48
 47
 51
 58


 Total
 645
 649
 628
 687
 754



  Source: UK Transplant.

  On grounds of patient confidentiality, the Island NHS boards have not been included because of the very small numbers.

Organ Donation

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual (a) cadaveric and (b) living donor organ donation rate was per million of the population in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

Mr Andy Kerr: The number of organ donors in Scotland in each of the last 10 financial years is set out in the following table.

  

 Year of Donation
 Cadaveric Donor
 pmp
 Living Donor
 pmp


 1996-97
 58
 11.4
 17
 3.3


 1997-98
 66
 12.9
 21
 4.1


 1998-99
 72
 14.1
 20
 3.9


 1999-2000
 70
 13.7
 34
 6.7


 2000-01
 58
 11.4
 40
 7.8


 2001-02
 62
 12.2
 33
 6.5


 2002-03
 58
 11.4
 34
 6.7


 2003-04
 46
 9.0
 37
 7.3


 2004-05
 61
 12.0
 33
 6.5


 2005-06
 48
 9.4
 38
 7.5


 Total
 599
 
 307
 



  Source: UK Transplant.

Organ Donation

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to improve public awareness in respect of organ donation.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Executive’s organ donation advertising campaigns are part of a long-term strategy designed to raise awareness and encourage positive attitudes towards organ donation. This year’s campaign will be launched soon and includes press and poster advertising and direct response opportunities for members of the public in 33 shopping centres throughout Scotland. The campaign aims to build on the success of the campaign in 2005.

Organ Transplants

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were on the waiting list for an organ transplant and what the average waiting time was for such an operation in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board and organ type.

Mr Andy Kerr: On grounds of patient confidentiality, because of the small number of patients involved, it is not possible to give the figures broken down by NHS board and organ type. The length of time a person has to wait for a transplant is dependent on a suitable donor organ becoming available.

People with Disabilities

Cathie Craigie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what timetable is envisaged for implementing the recommendations in Moving Forward: Review of NHS Wheelchair and Special Seating Services in Scotland .

Lewis Macdonald: I am currently considering the recommendations in this report, and will respond to them in due course.

Sport

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has invested in sport in each of the last five years and, of this, how much was targeted towards children and young people.

Patricia Ferguson: All Scottish Executive funding for sport is channelled through  sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland. Over the past five years  sportscotland has invested Exchequer and National Lottery monies directly in sport. The total investment is set out in the following table:

  

 
 2000-01
 2001-02
 2002-03
 2003-04
 2004-05


 Total Investment in Sport (£)
 32,224,000
 29,771,916
 27,172,821
 37,658,793
 39,782,943



  The information contained in this table is drawn from sportscotland’s annual reports. The figures presented include investment direct to the Scottish Sports Governing Bodies, as well as other direct investments in sporting programmes. These figures include funding that went to "multi-sports" such as the Active Schools Network, sport and community facilities and investment in National Centres.

  Much of the investment in sport will have indirect benefits for children and young people, for example investment in coaching, but it is not possible to identify these accurately and provide details of the exact investment.

  However, the following table shows direct investment in sporting programmes solely targeted at, and delivered to, children and young people. This list is not indicative of the total investment in sport for children and young people.

  

 
 2000-01
 2001-02
 2002-03
 2003-04
 2004-05


 Active Schools 
 -
 -
 -
 9,200,000
 13,900,000


 School Sports Co-ordinators 
 550,739
 796,204
 2,510,635
 2,222,994
 -


 TOP* 
 1,240,250
 1,556,460
 160,533
 101,127
 47,120


 Junior Groups Programme
 944,939
 1,299,431
 1,421,551
 1,002,679
 -



  Note: *The TOP programme is aimed at assisting Scotland’s primary schools and community organisations to support children in increasing their physical activity and skill levels and to encourage their involvement in sport.

  The TOP programmes (TOP Play and TOP Sport) are delivered by the Youth Sports Trust. They involve the deployment of resource cards and sports equipment suitable for primary schools, supported by a training package for primary teachers and community deliverers.

  TOP Play is aimed at children aged from four to nine years and TOP Sport is focused on ages seven to 11.

Tourism

John Farquhar Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many bookings VisitScotland.com has taken on the Inventory On-line Access (IONA) scheme for self-catering accommodation in 2006, also broken down by region.

Patricia Ferguson: The IONA system for self-catering accommodation was launched by visitscotland.com last year. The number of bookings that visitscotland.com has taken in the first six months of 2006 is shown in the following table, by VisitScotland local office area:

  

 Area
 Bookings


 Aberdeen and Grampian
 36


 Angus and Dundee
 3


 Argyll, Loch Lomond and Forth Valley
 232


 Ayrshire and Arran
 51


 Dumfries and Galloway
 51


 Edinburgh and Lothians
 192


 Fife
 62


 Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley
 35


 Highlands
 320


 Orkney
 37


 Perthshire
 57


 Scottish Borders
 29


 Shetland
 5


 Western Isles
 1


 Total Bookings
 1,111



  Just as visitscotland.com is one of many routes to market available to self catering operators, so the IONA booking system is one method for these operators with entries on the visitscotland.com website to generate bookings. Establishments which do not use the IONA booking system can still generate bookings directly from prospective visitors seeing their listing on visitscotland.com and getting in touch with them directly. However, there is growing market demand for bookings to be made online.